List of Major League Baseball career batting average leaders

In baseball, the batting average (BA) is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats. It is usually reported to three decimal places and pronounced as if it were multiplied by 1,000: a player with a batting average of .300 is "batting three-hundred." A point (or percentage point) is understood to be .001. If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken to more than three decimal places.

Catcher Josh Gibson, whose career ended in 1946, has the highest batting average in Major League Baseball (MLB) history.^[1]^[a] He batted .372 over 14 seasons, mostly with the Homestead Grays. In addition, he also holds the single-season record for highest batting average in major league history at .466 in 1943. Gibson never record a batting average of under .310 in any full season. Ty Cobb is second all-time with a career batting average of .366. He won a record 11 batting titles in the American League from 1907–1909, 1911–1915 and 1917–1919. Oscar Charleston is third with a career batting average of .364. He is the only player to have won consecutive Triple Crowns, having done so in 1924 and 1925.

A player must have a minimum of 5,000 at-bats to qualify for the list. For Negro League players, the minimum is set at 1,800 at-bats, or 5,000 at-bats combining both Negro League and AL/NL appearances.^[1]

Key

Rank	Rank among leaders in career batting average. A blank field indicates a tie.
Player	Name of the player.
BA	Total career batting average.
*	Denotes elected to National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bold	Denotes active player.^[b]

List

Different sources of baseball records present somewhat differing lists of career batting average leaders. Until the incorporation of statistics from Negro league baseball into major-league records in 2024, Ty Cobb was the consensus leader. Subsequently, he was supplanted by Josh Gibson on the official MLB leaderboard.^[2]

As of 26 August 2024^[update], no active player appears in the below list; the active player ranking highest is Jose Altuve, tied at 144th with a .3063 career batting average.^[1]

Ty Cobb

Oscar Charleston

Rogers Hornsby

Jud Wilson

Ed Delahanty

Tris Speaker

Billy Hamilton

Rank	Player	BA
1	Josh Gibson *	.3716
2	Ty Cobb *	.3662
3	Oscar Charleston *	.3634
4	Rogers Hornsby *	.3585
5	Jud Wilson *	.3500
6	Turkey Stearnes *	.3477
7	Ed Delahanty *	.3458
8	Buck Leonard *	.3448
9	Tris Speaker *	.3447
10	Billy Hamilton *	.3444
11	Ted Williams *	.3444
12	Dan Brouthers *	.3424
13	Babe Ruth *	.3421
14	Harry Heilmann *	.3416
15	Willie Keeler *	.3413
16	Bill Terry *	.3412
17	George Sisler *	.3401
18	Lou Gehrig *	.3401
19	Mule Suttles *	.3390
20	Jesse Burkett *	.3382
21	Tony Gwynn *	.3382
22	Nap Lajoie *	.3382
23	Bullet Rogan	.3369
24	Cristóbal Torriente	.3356
25	Ben Taylor	.3347
26	Al Simmons *	.3342
27	Paul Waner *	.3332
28	Eddie Collins *	.3332
29	Fats Jenkins	.3330
30	Sam Thompson *	.3314
31	Cap Anson *	.3308
32	Stan Musial *	.3308
33	Dick Lundy	.3307
34	Red Parnell	.3307
35	Heinie Manush *	.3298
36	Willie Wells *	.3285
37	Wade Boggs *	.3279
38	Rod Carew *	.3278
39	Honus Wagner *	.3276
40	Hugh Duffy *	.3255
41	Biz Mackey *	.3254
42	Jimmie Foxx *	.3253
43	Earle Combs *	.3247
44	Joe DiMaggio *	.3246
45	Babe Herman	.3245
46	Cool Papa Bell *	.3241
47	Joe Medwick *	.3236
48	Hurley McNair	.3232
49	Edd Roush *	.3227
50	Sam Rice *	.3223

Rank	Player	BA
51	George Scales	.3218
52	Chaney White	.3214
53	Kiki Cuyler *	.3210
54	Clarence Smith	.3210
55	Charlie Gehringer *	.3204
56	Chuck Klein *	.3201
57	Pie Traynor *	.3196
58	Mickey Cochrane *	.3196
59	Kirby Puckett *	.3181
60	Earl Averill *	.3178
61	Vladimir Guerrero*	.3176
62	Arky Vaughan *	.3176
63	Roberto Clemente *	.3173
64	Joe Kelley *	.3169
65	Zack Wheat *	.3167
66	Roger Connor *	.3164
67	Lloyd Waner *	.3164
68	Todd Helton *	.3164
69	George Van Haltren	.3163
70	Frankie Frisch *	.3161
71	Goose Goslin *	.3160
72	George Carr	.3151
73	Hank Greenberg *	.3135
74	Jackie Robinson *	.3133
75	Jack Fournier	.3132
76	Elmer Flick *	.3130
77	Nomar Garciaparra	.3127
78	Larry Walker *	.3127
79	Bill Dickey *	.3125
80	Manny Ramírez	.3122
81	Johnny Mize *	.3121
82	Joe Sewell *	.3121
83	Fred Clarke *	.3120
84	Edgar Martínez *	.3115
85	Freddie Lindstrom *	.3114
86	Bing Miller	.3113
87	Baby Doll Jacobson	.3112
88	Ichiro Suzuki	.3110
89	Ginger Beaumont	.3108
90	Mike Tiernan	.3107
91	Luke Appling *	.3104
92	Jim O'Rourke *	.3104
93	Bobby Veach	.3099
94	Jim Bottomley *	.3096
95	Derek Jeter *	.3095
96	Sam Crawford *	.3094
97	Bob Meusel	.3092
98	Magglio Ordóñez	.3090
99	Jack Tobin	.3087
100	Branch Russell	.3087

Source:^[1]

Notes

^ The list presented includes players and statistics from defunct leagues considered "major" by Major League Baseball, not only the National League and American League.
^ A player is considered inactive if he has announced his retirement or has not played professionally for a full season.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Career Leaders & Records for Batting Average". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved June 10, 2024.
^ Castrovince, Anthony (29 May 2024). "What to know about Negro Leagues stats entering MLB record". MLB.com. Retrieved 9 June 2024.

External links

"Career Leaders & Records for Batting Average". Baseball-Reference.com.
"Career Leaders For Batting Average: The Top 1,000 Best Batting Averages in MLB History". Baseball Almanac.

Major League Baseball records

Baseball statistics (types of records)

General

Batting
leaders

Career	Batting average Hits 3,000 club Progressive At bats Singles Doubles Triples Home runs 500 club 600 club Progressive Pitchers Extra base hits RBIs Walks Intentional On-base percentage Slugging percentage OPS Times on base Total bases HBP Strikeouts Plate appearances Games played
Annual	Batting average Doubles Triples Home runs RBI
Season	Batting average Triples Home run Progressive Doubles
Game	Home runs Game Inning Hitting for the cycle Grand slams RBI Game Inning Hits
Misc	Consecutive game hitting streak Hits Home runs Doubles Triples RBIs

Baserunning
leaders

Career	Runs Stolen bases
Annual	Runs Stolen bases
Game	Runs
Misc	Runs Stolen bases

Pitching
leaders

Career	Wins 300 club Losses Games started Games finished Innings pitched Strikeouts 3,000 club Hold Saves 300 club Complete games Shutouts ERA WHIP Walks Hit batsmen Wild pitches Batters faced
Annual	Wins Saves Shutouts Strikeouts ERA
Season	Wins Losses
Game	No-hitters Perfect games Strikeouts Game Inning Immaculate innings
Misc	Wins

Fielding
leaders

Career	Games played P C 1B 2B 3B SS OF LF CF RF Putouts P C 1B 2B 3B SS OF LF CF RF Assists P C 1B 2B 3B SS OF LF CF RF Double plays P C 1B 2B 3B SS OF LF CF RF Errors P C 1B 2B 3B SS OF LF CF RF Passed balls
Annual	Putouts Assists Errors